


Finite

by enterprisecat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), Thor: Ragnarok - Fandom
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Loki Has Issues, and Loki's issues have issues, just ignore this huge Thanos spaceship for a moment shall we, post- Ragnarok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 03:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13022418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enterprisecat/pseuds/enterprisecat
Summary: “What are you trying to escape from?” she asks, with a seriousness of a child who saw way too much during her short life.





	Finite

There is one thing about spaceships Loki has never considered in his life. Not that he spent too much time thinking about aircrafts - up until few weeks ago he simply disregarded their existence as they were useless to his goals.

Right now, though, trapped in metal walls of one of them he couldn’t stop thinking about one of their biggest faults.

They were finite.

No matter how huge, how many kilometres of corridors there were you’d still reach the end of the journey. Reach a dead end. See a wall with a small window that cannot be open or no window at all.

Yes, Loki was more than aware of this fact now. He spent of his time wandering around cold corridors, lacking of any decorations, their sole purpose to be let people transport to the desired place.

Their emptiness makes Loki shiver.

Asgardians around him do not pay attention to him. He is not invisible - he learnt as a kid how painfully that may end - no, he is simply unnoticeable. Perfectly ordinary so no one will give him a second glance.

He tries very hard not to wonder what kind of reaction he would receive otherwise.

They might have not killed him when Thor forced him out his disguise but who would dare take him from the golden prince? Especially if the prince in question actually threaten to crush his head. But here, alone… As much as he hates it, Thor is the only obstacle between him and angry people of Asgard. He felt their looks when Thor forced him from the Odyn shape – surprised, scared, disgusted… He might wear name of the prince but he lost place reserved for royalty in people’s heart long time ago. He might have never had it in a first place.

Being unnoticeable does not block the sounds of thousands of people locked in a finite space. Loki could prepare some muting spell, he supposes, but the mere thought about amount of the energy required to keep it active makes him feel exhausted.

He found a room during one of his first wanderings with a huge glass, showing the vast emptiness of the galaxy. Loki presumes it should be called an observation deck. He doesn’t care for the view visible in front of him – he has seen more than that when falling through the void.

He comes here because the room is empty. No one wants to be reminded that the only thing between them and vacuum is a metal wall.

He comes here because he can take off the cloaking spell and just be himself, with spiralling thoughts as the only companion. Even the omnipresent noise is muted here, more distant.

He comes here because…

“Hello”, a girl’s voice greets him as soon as he enters the room. Were he someone else, he’d gasp in surprise. Being Loki he simply swirls and looks at the child with eyebrows raised.

She’s thin and tiny, with huge blue eyes and short black hair. She must have fallen ill – it is against tradition to cut girl’s hair that short and people of Asgard are all about tradition.

“Hello,” Loki allows. Most children would escape the room seeing him, and if this girl is old enough to wander alone, she’s old enough to know stories about destruction he has caused. The fact that she is eying him wearily but with interests sparks something in Loki’s heart.

“What are you doing here on your own?” he asks and sits down in his usual spot, right in front of the huge window. There are only small spots of stars visible now, cold and distant.

He can feel hesitation coming off from the girl and to his own surprise he wishes her to sit beside him. It must be the tiredness. He should tell her to flee, run to her parents and never come back to this place.

He does not feel the need to do that.

“This place is noisy,” she says all of sudden. “There is nowhere I can go not to hear all those voices all the time. But this place is quieter then there rest.”

“That it is.” Loki turns from the window. The girl is still standing, looking even smaller than before. He sighs. Children always reacted weirdly to his presence: the smallest ones cried uncontrollably, older escaped to their parents. He used to think it was his magic that was so disturbing to them but then realised that it had to be something else – his origin. Children instinctively were able to sense a monster in him, see the blue skin and red eyes through the veil of handsome appearance. No child was ever this calm in his presence.

He flinches out of surprise when girls sits beside him, the tiniest movement. She looks at him, frowning, her huge eyes seemingly taking in every detail.

“What are you trying to escape from?” she asks, with a seriousness of a child who saw way too much during her short life.

 _I’m not escaping_ , Loki wants to say, he wants to brush her off like an irritating crumb. He does need to explain himself to a child, he does not need to explain himself to anyone.

“I am not sure,” he says instead, slowly, hesitantly. Why he is responding to this arrogant child at all?

The girl glares at him, unblinking, blue eyes staring as she could see a soul itself. As if a monster like him could have a soul…

“I…”. What is the reason of his escape? There are lots of possible answers here. The angry people of Asgard, the never ending sound of their voices. The enclosed space of the aircraft they are travelling in, so similar to the prisons he was kept in. And…

Thor. His brother.

He stood beside him on the very first day but with every passing hour it was harder and harder to look into his eye. Thor has never been so similar to Odyn before, the dignity of a king without the cruelness of an emperor. Valkyrie smiled at him, without any hint of sarcasm. Thor was worth being a ruler, even though there was no physical location for his kingdom.

He didn’t seem to notice when Loki slipped to the shadows and left the room. He didn’t try to search for Loki in the incoming days, either too busy or just not interested in seeing Loki.

That was when Loki started wandering around the ship. Thor hadn’t need him in a long time now and it was the high time to accept it. The only problem was that Loki couldn’t do that, for way too long being his brother’s shadow and follower.

“I’m escaping from reality,” he says finally, quietly.

The girl, unbelievably, snorts.

“You’re escaping from your own mind.”, her face serious. “Think. Remember. Don’t imagine things.”

The blue eyes should belong to someone thousands of years older.

Loki blinks. “Where are you?”

She just smiles. “Somebody who is fed up with you wasting your time wandering aimlessly around. Thor needs an advisor, someone who ruled those people even if not in his own skin. And he needs his brother, no matter what you or he might think.”

“You just need to believe it.”

She disappears before Loki can say anything, first just a silhouette of a girl and then nothing.

Loki takes a deep breath and looks through the window. Stars blink at him, as cold and distant as ever. He looks at them for a moment before turning away from it and going to the exit.

He does not cloak himself this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello new fandom! This is a little thing written during my working hours, when I tried really hard to avoid my responsibilities.


End file.
